engleski

What Does it Mean to be an Islander in Croatia?

This chapter analyses relations between the individual island communities of the Zadar archipelago towards the city of Zadar as their administrative and cultural centre, as well as mutual relations among the island communities. Some of the islands of the Zadar archipelago (Olib, Silba, Premuda, Škarda, Ist, Molat, Iž, and Rava) administratively ‘belong’ to the city of Zadar, with their formal status being identical to certain city quarters, although some are a few hours distance from the city by ferry. I also discuss the position of the city’s administration towards the islands, as well as the level of communication among the individual island communities. The principal identity markers that define inhabitants of individual islands are considered along with distinctive elements among the individual islands. This work relies in part on field research conducted over several years in the Zadar archipelago and on field research carried out regularly with students of Mediterranean studies. Research is primarily focused on the problems of everyday island life, island self-sustainability, isolation, as well as internal and external island mobility. Island sustainability is today an unavoidable phrase in all island discourses. For centuries, the islanders have been unaware of that notion, but they lived sustainably. The islanders’ world is defined by the island’s perspectives, restrictions, anxieties, and the aim of this chapter is to analyse the positions of the islanders’ ‘sense of place’.

island studies, island identity, Croatian islands, island names, the Zadar archipelago

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